By SARA CLIFFORD and SUZANNAH COUCH
Since starting pop-up food pantries in April, Brown County COAD has seen an average of 120 families or households come through each one.
Some may be getting help from multiple sources; some may be getting a box of free groceries just this one time. The circumstances don’t matter; all are welcome.
The story is similar at Mother’s Cupboard. Demand for no-questions-asked groceries and hot meals has stayed steady, at about 120 meals per night.
Some signs of normalcy, like school buses and shoppers, have been returning, five months into the pandemic. But with some assistance measures ending last month, like rental housing aid and rules for utility companies dealing with unpaid bills, the needs of those hardest hit by the economic shutdown are likely to linger.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Brown County’s unemployment rate in July was 7.2 percent — lower than the state average of 7.9 percent, but still within the top third of Indiana counties. In July 2019, our unemployment rate was 3 percent and the state’s was 3.4 percent.
Brown County claims for unemployment benefits hit a high of 641 the week of May 2 and have decreased almost every week since, down to a low of 24 the week of Aug. 15, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s database. But that’s still not to pre-COVID level; normally, claims from this county were less than 10 per week.
In Indiana, the maximum weekly unemployment benefit is $390, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. However, benefits are set on previous weekly wages and are calculated based on 47 percent of previous earnings, so many Hoosiers do not meet the max.
For example, unemployed people earning the $30,573 average per job in Brown County would receive $276 per week with state benefits, plus another $300 from federal benefits — reduced from the $600 in federal benefits they had been getting until last month. Going forward, that puts them close to their pre-tax wage of $587 per week.
Before the federal reduction, unemployment insurance payments were providing some people with more money than they’d earned while employed, as the extra $600 goes further in the rural Midwest than it does in places like California.
Mother’s Cupboard Chef Sherry Houze said she believes that’s contributed to the food pantry and kitchen not seeing a spike in demand for hot meals throughout the pandemic.
“We expected a big increase in our numbers, but due to the fact that there’s so much food out there and different organizations doing all kinds of different things, we never really got a real big impact,” Houze said last week.
“Now, I don’t know, too, I think a lot of that might be because the government put the extra money on people’s unemployment, and because of the increase in food stamps and other benefits and stuff, so actually, people had more money than before, so they actually had money to spend on nutritional foods and stuff.
“We probably will get an increase (in free meals served) when people no longer have that to rely on,” she added.
Brown County Schools distributed free breakfasts and lunches to any children younger than 18 all summer. Last school year, 47.8 percent of the district population was eligible for free- or reduced-price meals, but any child regardless of income could take advantage of the free summer meal program.
In May, 889 Brown County students’ families were mailed Pandemic EBT cards from the state’s Family and Social Services Administration. They held money for food, replacing the free or reduced-price meals which students would have been getting at school if it had been in session as normal. Most families were eligible to receive about $319 per school-age child in the household as a one-time benefit.
“Once SNAP and unemployment (benefits) end, things are going to get hairy for people,” Kim Robinson predicted in a July COAD meeting.
‘A godsend’
By 5 p.m. Aug. 27, a line of cars was waiting to pick up free groceries from COAD’s ninth pop-up food pantry, this time at Van Buren Elementary School.
By 5:15 p.m., food had gone out to 61 households already. Each driver was asked how many households they needed groceries for, then volunteers loaded trunks, backseats and truck beds.
Food came from St. Vincent de Paul in Indianapolis and St. Vincent de Paul in Brown County as well as Midwest Food Bank. Essentials like bread, milk and eggs were in the bags, along with fresh produce including grapes, bags of spinach and salad mixes, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and lots of blueberries. There was also yogurt, ketchup and sliced ham. The pantry also had 90 large, frozen turkeys, but there were only two left by 5:45 p.m.
A Nashville grandmother was brought to tears as she watched volunteers load her trunk with food. She was one of the first cars in line.
“To think there’s a whole turkey back there that I can cook and make so many meals out of, I am just floored,” she said as the tears welled up.
Her son lives with her along with his girlfriend and two grandchildren. Her son is an essential worker, but his workload has been decreased due to the pandemic. The girlfriend lost her job due to the pandemic and has not been able to find another one.
“This has been a godsend getting this. I’m 61 years old and I’ve never been so worried about feeding my loved ones in my life,” she said.
She is disabled after she was hit by an uninsured drunk driver more than 30 years ago. Her disability check will not arrive until Sept. 3. Her older grandchild works at a restaurant, so he can eat there, but her younger grandchild is a teen at home.
“I ate some oats today. That’s it. I was wondering what I was going to do tonight. I had a little peanut butter and jelly left,” she said.
This was her first time visiting a COAD pop-up pantry because she didn’t know if previous pantries were available to everyone.
Not long after she left, a retired couple pulled up. They said they had not had trouble buying food lately, but they wanted to prepare for the unknown as much as possible. “You don’t know what’s coming,” the woman said.
A 17-year-old Brown County High School senior rode his bicycle more than three miles to pick up food for his family of six. He balanced grocery bags on each handlebar and had a bag of bread tied to his backpack.
“It’s nothing,” he said about the balancing act.
At least two volunteers offered to give him a ride home, but he insisted he would be OK and took off from the parking lot toward home.
A young woman pulled up and asked for groceries for two households. “Sometimes, having one or two jobs just doesn’t cut everything that needs to be taken care of,” she said.
“Any kind of benefit of extra food is a wonderful asset that you could use to supplement. Even if it’s things you can freeze, it’s nice to be able to have those things.”
Her family was not necessarily affected by the pandemic and no one lost their jobs, but having the extra food helps, she said.
“My husband would be like, ‘No, there are other families out there that need it’ and is too proud to come here. He’s like, ‘Don’t take it away from people who are starving or don’t have a job,’ but they obviously want to help you no matter what your situation is,” she said as tears began to fill her eyes.
She works two jobs seven days a week and is training in the evenings for a third job, so getting free groceries not only helps to save money, but also saves time running to a grocery store.
“I don’t want to struggle anymore,” she said.
“I just want to dig out of the debt hole and be able to do something fun every once in a while.”
By the end of the night, 157 households in Brown County had received free groceries from the pop-up pantry.
Needs continue
Utility bills for water, sewer, electricity, phone and internet, which some residents may have put off when money was tight, are now coming due. The shutoff moratorium that Gov. Eric Holcomb imposed in March expired on Aug. 14. He encouraged users to create payment plans with their utilities.
Nashville Utilities, which provides sewer and water to in-town and out-of-town users, had 36 customers with past-due bills as of Aug. 20. Nineteen were 90 days past due, five were 60 days past due and 12 were 30 days past due, said Nashville Clerk-Treasurer Brenda Young.
The town is offering payment plans through a promissory note with zero percent interest, and the council voted unanimously last month to extend the repayment time from six months to a full year.
“I don’t have a grand total … but we do have some people who have not paid at all during the moratorium,” Young told the council. “… We will be reaching out to these customers and trying to see if there’s any way we can help them so they can catch back up.”
The statewide moratorium on evicting renters who are past due also expired Aug. 14. The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority created a COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program to help Hoosiers who were behind.
As of Aug. 26, the last day to apply for that aid, 58 Brown County renters had requested assistance, said spokesman Brad Meadows. Not all applications had been reviewed yet, so he couldn’t say how many would be accepted into the program or how much the total assistance would be.
Homeowners with federally-insured mortgages who had fallen behind during the pandemic were protected from foreclosure and eviction until Aug. 31.
The No. 1 type of call coming into the Indiana 211 helpline last week was people concerned about evictions, Indiana Supreme Court Justice Loretta Rush said during the governor’s COVID press conference Aug. 26.
On Aug. 25, the state announced the Landlord and Tenant Settlement Conference Program as a free way for landlords and tenants to work out eviction disputes out of court with a neutral facilitator. More information is posted at courts.in.gov/facilitate. The state also has had a Mortgage Foreclosure Facilitation Program for awhile, which continues.
With these possible strains hitting family finances, more local food aid was announced last week.
St. David’s Episcopal Church in Bean Blossom installed “The Giving Box” in its parking lot at the intersection of state roads 135 and 45, inviting anyone with emergency food needs to take what they need, any day, anytime.
On Sept. 14, Unity Baptist Church on Spearsville Road is starting a free, drive-through dinner program called Loaves and Fishes that will continue every second Monday from 4 to 7 p.m., by reservation. The dinners are coming from Mother’s Cupboard.
Both events were promoted by the Northern Brown County Food Alliance, a group working to bring options to people living north of Nashville. It started when the Bean Blossom Farmers Market was canceled because of COVID.
It was already difficult for some people who live far from the county’s center, where the only grocery store and now the only farmers market are, to get healthy food, and the pandemic made it harder, said volunteer Donna Niednagel.
Volunteers are now working on expanding free food delivery services to people who don’t have transportation. That includes seniors who are continuing to stay home, as well as younger people and families with children whose only consistent ride may be the school bus, Niednagel said. Some don’t even have phones.
“We anticipate that the need is going to continue, particularly if things flare up again,” she added.
Another need they’ve discovered is for information, Niednagel said. Twenty-one aid groups stand ready to help with food, utilities, clothing and housing assistance, but some residents have never heard of them. At one of the drive-through food pantries at Fruitdale volunteer fire department this summer, participants got “swag bags” with their free food, pointing them to those other resources.
“There’s a real lack of people aware of what is available, and so we’re trying to get that out through the churches and the organizations in the area. For instance, Thrive Alliance delivers meals to the home twice a month if you’re a senior or disabled, and people were really unaware of that program,” Niednagel said.
“We’ve talked to people who, as they’re pulling up (to the food pantry), they say, ‘Do you know how I can get assistance? I’m going to lose my house,’” she said.
“I hope that we (the food alliance) can continue developing as we see the need … even if it’s nothing more than a time together to give referral services, other than food.”
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Brown County COAD: 812-988-0001
Brown County Community Closet (low-cost clothing and household items): 812-988-6003, 284 S. Van Buren St., Nashville
Brown County Weekend Backpacks (sent home with children from school on Fridays): Get information from child’s school
The Giving Box: St. David’s Episcopal Church parking lot, corner of state roads 45 and 135, Bean Blossom
God’s Grace (free clothing and household items, utility aid, noon to 3 p.m. Wednesdays or by appointment): 812-988-9764, Brown County Presbyterian Fellowship church, 602 State Road 135 North
Hamblen Township Trustee (utility and housing aid for township residents): 317-474-0140
Human Services Inc. (WIC program, food aid for women, infants and children): 812-988-6792
Indiana Division of Family Resources (SNAP benefits, food aid): 800-403-0864
Jackson Township Trustee (utility and housing aid for township residents): 812-320-4564
Mother’s Cupboard (meals daily 4-6 p.m., drive-thru): 812-988-8038, Memorial Drive (Brown County Fairgrounds), Nashville. To volunteer to cook (age 16+) or serve (age 12+), check the “Mother’s Cupboard Community Kitchen Inc.” Facebook page for times and dates.
Nashville United Methodist Church (free food box): Behind the church off Jefferson Street, on Bittersweet Lane
North Salem United Methodist Church (food pantry): 812-988-2786
Northern Brown County Food Alliance: 812-720-4054
The Salvation Army (food pantry and utility aid): 812-988-7019
Society of St. Vincent de Paul (food pantry, clothing and household items, open Saturdays and Mondays from 10 a.m. to noon except holiday weekends): 812-988-8821, 2901 Long Lake Road.
South Central Community Action Program (utility and housing aid): 812-988-6636
TRIAD (senior visitation): 812-988-5606
Unity Baptist Church Loaves and Fishes (meals 4-7 p.m. on second Mondays starting Sept. 14): 317-979-2413, reservation required by 5 p.m. the Saturday prior
Van Buren Township Trustee (utility and housing aid for township residents): 812-988-4020
Washington Township Trustee (utility and housing aid for township residents): 812-720-1439
We Care Gang (aid for utilities and other basic needs): [email protected]
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